For those not up to date on the latest internet culture wars, it may seem strange to have been greeted on Twitter by the trending wave of #CancelNetflix. It’s a strange thing, to see one of the world’s biggest sources of entertainment have this much of a fuss kicked up around it, especially during a time when everyone’s more reliant on in-home entertainment than ever before. Strangely enough, it all began with a rather unassuming French film called Cuties.
Most had probably never heard of the film before the controversy, and that’s likely because there isn’t a whole lot to say. It’s a rather niche film, the debut of French writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré, and released to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, even winning the Directing Jury Award. The basic plot of the film is about an 11-year old girl attempting to find her identity among a community of young dancers called ‘Cuties.’ The film was eventually picked up by Netflix to be added to their catalogue after it had finished its run at festivals.
This is where things go south however: Netflix released a new poster for the film, showcasing the dancers in sexualized poses, which incited a major backlash from both fans of the film and a massive audience for whom the image was their first impression of the movie. Fans criticized the poster for being a misrepresentation of the film, and newcomers criticized it for what they saw as uncritical sexualization of minors. The film’s trailer has been overwhelmed with dislikes on YouTube, and Doucouré has even reported to Deadline that she has received numerous death threats from those angered by the film’s premise: “I received numerous attacks on my character from people who had not seen the film, who thought I was actually making a film that was apologetic about hyper-sexualization of children.”
If one takes the time to watch the full trailer, however, they may be surprised by how tame it is in comparison to the backlash. In fact, the trailer doesn’t even showcase the dance troupe’s actual act at any point, and mostly seems to consist of a young group of immature girls hanging out together and dealing with their personal lives. While the premise is certainly provocative and a little uncomfortable, those angered by how dance troupes sexualize minors will be glad to know that the filmmaker actually agrees: “Our girls see that the more a woman is overly sexualized on social media, the more she is successful. And the children just imitate what they see, trying to achieve the same result without understanding the meaning. And yeah, it’s dangerous.”
Despite the film’s message being critical of its subject matter, and the explicit statements by the creator against dance troupes like the one in the film, the #CancelNetflix crowd seems unconvinced. Swarms of tweets continue to pile in accusing Netflix, the director, and critics of using to film to advance a pro-pedophilia agenda. In spite of this however, Netflix seems to be remaining firm in its decision to host the film, and the director remains hopeful that those who watch the movie will see it for what it was meant to be: “I actually hope that those who haven’t seen it, will see it, and I can’t wait to see their reaction. Hopefully they will understand that we’re actually on the same side of this battle. If we join forces, we could make a big change in this world that hyper-sexualizes children.”
Cuties is available on Netflix for streaming.
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